Prologue.
Whitehead (1861-1947) is a philosopher from England. He asserts that reason is an impulse toward empty concreteness. That impulse is not empty. It is a fundamental force that can give birth to something. This impulse of mind is appetition, which is an inherent agent of transcendental goals. Therefore, empty concreteness is embodied as material enjoyment. Whitehead's reason cannot exist without appetition. Jeong Yi-cheon of the Northern Song Dynasty, who developed Neo-Confucianism, also believed that the main body cannot be separated from the phenomenon. Whitehead advocates Plato, stating that all of Western philosophy is just a footnote to Plato's philosophy. However, he overcomes Plato by creating his own organic philosophy. Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud are also critics of the Platonic system. Plato's original sin is his ideology that isolates humans from the world and alienates them for 2000 years. Idea corresponds to all phenomena in a monolithic and organic manner. Whitehead can be seen as a Copernican Übermensch. 'The Function of Reason' is a lecture given at Princeton University in 1929. This book provides an easy and condensed summary of a long and difficult text.